Eternal - Cryptic Lust (2024)

Is she summoning the undead forth from their slumber? Is she some sort of banshee who is just inhabiting the same crypt? Why do these things look like skeletons but still have flesh, veins, and some musculature? Are they revenants? Ghouls? So many questions, but one that Arizona's Eternal does answer for us with their first proper full-length review is that they are one badass newer death metal band that drags some old school influences wriggling and hammering into the new age. This one heads straight back to that formative Florida sound pioneered by Death in the later 80s, and then bulks it up at the gym with mightier drumming, denser bass lines, and vocals that go over the top with that early style of Chuck Schuldiner, Martin van Drunen or John Tardy growl.

It's not a 1:1 sort of tribute by any means. Whereas a band like Gruesome is trying to emulate certain albums or eras of its influence, Eternal is just extracting that DNA from the cemetery fossils and then mutating it into their own strain. A Jurassic Park of grisly old punishment that goes hard in using some percussive force to clout the listeners. This does have its faster outbreaks, but it's more about the groove after groove, claustrophobic tightness to the rhythm section but executed with such meaty tones that you really have no prayer of finding a salad anywhere. They excel at the slower-to-mid speeds, where the bass lines are creeping and oozing along in the bottom of your ear canals, they can process these huge crush doom/death riffs in there too like in the bowels of "Torture Chapel", or a rolling sort of groove as in "Spectral Immolation" which reminds one heavily of something like "Where the Slime Live" off Morbid Angel's Domination. There's also something aesthetically Swedish threaded through this, like an added level of armor inspired by Entombed or Dismember but not copying the precise tone.

The intro and interlude are cool, the former a wash of evil organs to herald "Doorway to Tribulation", the latter a more whimsical, almost haunted saloon vibe before the title track explodes. The lead guitars do not always land for me; as frilly, spectral atmospherics they excel, but a few feel like they could have been molded into more evil yet melodic dimensions, rather than sounding a little forced and messy. The riffs can also feel a little samey across a few tracks, but every song has at least a few good ones to offer, so this is a minor flaw that will be hammered out with more experience and variety. All told, Cryptic Lust is an album I'd easily throw out there as a recommendation alongside a Necrot, Extremity, or the earlier Skeletal Remains efforts. Old school in spirit, heavier for the times, digestible but destructive death metal which helps you appreciate where it all first exhumed from thrash. Some versions of this also have a cover of "Deathcrush" by Mayhem, which fits in pretty well though they switch to a more black metal vocal for some of it and I don't know that that was necessary.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://eternalaz.bandcamp.com/album/cryptic-lust